Hanover Township hands out 1,200 free backpacks filled with school supplies

When Maria Nevarez's son Arnold was diagnosed with leukemia in 2008, she and her husband, Jose, worried about the expensive medical bills they would have to pay in addition to caring for their two younger children.

It was a trying time for the whole family. Arnold was in treatment for 3½ years, requiring trips from the family's home in Elgin to Chicago and expensive doctors. Her husband lost his job, and they had to declare bankruptcy. They made frequent visits to the food pantry and nearly lost their house.

Arnold recovered and is now a healthy 15-year-old, but the Nevarez family continues to struggle financially.

That's why Maria was among hundreds of parents who filled a line that wrapped around Laurel Hill Elementary School as early as 5 a.m. Wednesday to get free backpacks packed with school supplies.

Hanover Township handed out 1,200 backpacks on Wednesday with school supplies specific to each grade level. It's part of a program that started in 2009, but Mary Jo Imperato, director of welfare services for the township, said this was the biggest year yet.

"It just keeps growing," she said. "The need has gotten bigger."

This year AT&T donated money that helped buy supplies to fill 500 backpacks.

"We are very blessed, Nevarez said. "This is very helpful because we are going through a hard time right now."

The family's only car recently broke down, and Nevarez said she hasn't been able to do any back-to-school shopping for her three kids yet.

While the backpack is helpful, Nevarez still stresses about the costs of everything else she needs to buy before the first day of school.

"The list is so big; they ask for so much," she said. "I have no idea how I would do this otherwise."

Nevarez is not alone.

A back-to school spending survey released by the National Retail Federation last month said that the average family with children in grades K-12 plans to spend $630.36 on electronics, apparel and other school needs.

"This is so much help. Some families don't work or only have one wage," said Maribel Romero of Hanover Park, who was picking up backpacks for her two kids. Even with the backpack full of supplies, Romero said she still had to spend almost $200 on back-to-school items last year.

She's afraid it will be even more this year.

Families lined up for hours, with children playing games or coloring in free books provided by state Rep. Fred Crespo, while waiting for their turn to get backpacks decorated with Disney characters and superheros.

The backpacks are sturdy too, not like ones you might find at a bargain store, said LaTonya Williams of Elgin, who waited to get backpacks for her three children and her nephew.

"All the school supplies you need for each grade, it gets ridiculous," Williams said. "It would be really hard to do this on my own. I'm really grateful."

As students get older things get more and more expensive, she said.

"Now you need a certain type of calculator or certain items they have to have," she added. "It gets difficult at times."

Imperato said many of the families who were at Wednesday's event frequent the Hanover Township food pantry, but volunteers were not checking income levels before handing out backpacks.

"It's so important to be able to help these families," Imperato said. "Children who don't have a backpack might not go to school the first day. They feel different. They don't have what everybody else has and then they are already falling behind."